Alpine Formula 1 drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have tempered expectations that the team could be in line to replicate McLaren’s turnaround from last term.
The Enstone-based squad’s top brass admitted ahead of testing that it was braced for a sluggish beginning to the latest campaign with its overhauled A524 charger.
However, Alpine Team Principal Bruno Famin conceded that the team’s slump to lock out the last row of the grid at the season-opening round in Bahrain was a “shock”.
Alpine’s predicament has drawn comparisons to the situation McLaren was in last season, when it went from struggling to score points to a regular podium contender.
The Anglo-French marque has since implemented a revised technical structure that has adopted the same three-pronged leadership arrangement McLaren has in place.
But while Gasly accepts that the Woking-based side’s recovery should serve as an inspiration, he believes Alpine should not become fixated on recreating its rival’s feat.
“Since I arrived in F1 I must admit I’ve never seen a jump like McLaren did last year, and everyone refers to us and gets back to that jump we’ve seen last year,” Gasly said.
“And it was incredible, credit to them on that work, everyone would love to make such a development, I’m sure if you ask Ferrari, Mercedes if they can improve their cars as much as McLaren did last year they’d go for it.
“Obviously it’s got to be motivational and inspirational for all of us to see that it’s achievable, but at the same time we don’t see it as mandatory and like the absolute target of the team.
“We want to be fighting at the front, we know right now there’s quite a clear order with the top five teams, McLaren, Aston [Martin], being quite ahead of us and we know we need to catch up quite a lot until we’re able to fight with them.”
Ocon contends that McLaren’s remarkable mid-season revival was the greatest ever conducted in F1 and should be an example to Alpine that 2024 is not a lost cause.
“Well, I mean, McLaren last year was clearly an example of what they’ve done,” Ocon added. “It’s exactly what every midfield team wants to do, wants to improve.
“The way they’ve done it, it’s very, very impressive, and I think no one in Formula 1 has done that in the past, and it’s a new season. They were definitely an example.
“Now, obviously, the situation internally, how things are going to be restructured, I completely trust the team and the process.
“Obviously, the aim is to improve things. We are not where we want to be, and I trust Bruno to improve and take us to a further level.”
But Ocon highlights that McLaren’s reversal in fortunes 12 months ago doesn’t guarantee that Alpine will be able to achieve similar despite the obvious similarities.
“Until we’ve done it, it’s not an easy thing to do,” the Frenchman added. “If they’ve done it, it doesn’t mean we are going to be able to necessarily do it.
“Until we do it, we can reach out if that’s the case, and that’s going to be a very different press point. But so far, we haven’t done it, so we can’t really say.”
Ocon has conceded that improvements to Alpine’s overweight and uncompetitive car aren’t going to transpire “overnight” but stressed there are changes in the pipeline.
“We need to improve step by step,” he declared. “Obviously, it’s going to take time. It’s not going to be something overnight, so we’ll see.”
Asked when the first upgrades are scheduled to arrive, he replied: “There is a plan to bring updates through the year. Hopefully, after every update, we are going to make a step.”
